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SUGAR 



SALIVA 
TARTAR 




Presented by 

The Dental Department 

of the 

Bridgeport Board of Health 



' THE TALE OF A TUMMY* 

10:00 A. M. — Oh dear! Another warm day. Wonder if I'll 
be abused as I was yesterday. If I am, I'm going to strike. Just 
disposed of a half-chewed breakfast. We ran for a train which 
meant I was jiggled about and so tired that it took me twice as long 
to do my work. Hope she gives me an hour or two of complete 
rest before anything more comes my way. 

10:30 A. M. — Two glasses of ice water have just arrived. It 
will take all the energy I can pump up in the next hour to warm me 
up to normal again. 

10:50 A. M. — Half-chewed breakfast did not satisfy her and 
she has bought some peanuts and started again. 

12:00 M. — Peanuts have been drifting along steadily ever 
since. Think she has finished them though. 

12:30 P. M. — Decided she w^asn't very hungry, and instead of 
a good solid dinner sent me down a cold egg-nog heavy with choco- 
late. Could have managed it all right if it hadn't been so unnatural- 
ly cold, but that made it terribly difficult to deal with. 

1 : 1 P. M. — More ice water. 

1 :40 P. M. — Was mistaken about the peanuts; she has found 
another handful at the bottom of her vanity bag, and now^ I am 
getting them again. 

2 :05 P. M. — More ice water. 

3:10 P. M. — She has been lifting some heavy books, and as 
usual used my muscles instead of her arm muscles. You see she's 
never had any proper physical education — soft, flabby, slouchy 
sort. Tired me almost as much as a six course dinner. 

3:20 P. M. — A friend has brought us a box of caramels, and 
she has started right in on them. 



*The above is an extract from the Diary of a Stomach, published in the American Medical 
Journal. H a stomach could really talk there would be many of them who could tell a similar 
story. 



LIBRARY OF C0NQRI8S 
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4:30 p. M — Have received something like a half pound of 
caramels. Just heard her say; *'Oh dear, I don't feel a bit well. 
The milk in that egg-nog must have been sour.** 

6:30 P. M. — We played a set of tennis before dinner, and here 
I am all tired out and a lot of work to do. 

6:50 P. M. — We are invited to have a soda before going home. 
Had a lemon phosphate and then had to run for the car. 

7:00 P. M. — Fried potatoes, cucumbers, veal cutlet, catsup, 
cookies and canned blueberries. What do you know about that? 

7:45 P. M, — We are strolling down to the corner for a pine- 
apple walnut college ice. 

8:20 P. M. — Got home and found somebody had made some 
iced tea. She drank two glasses. I tried hard to keep the tea and 
the college ice separated, but they mixed it in spite of me. I go on 
strike! 

8:30 P. M. — Have sent back the college ice and iced tea. 

8:40 P. M. — Returned the blueberries. 

8:45 P. M. — And the peanuts. 

9:00 P. M. — Cant get the doctor. 

9:17 P. M. — Doctor found at the movies. Mother thinks it is 
a weak stomach she inherited from her father. 

9:45 P. M. — Doctor says it is from a bilious temperament. 
Good Night I 



SUGAR 

In order to be well and strong a child must have foods that 
contain all the things the body needs. Some of the most important 
things which the body needs are starch, fats, sugar, lime, iron and 
a substance called protein. TTiis does not mean that you have to 
eat starch or iron as you are accustomed to see them or think of 
them. The starch or the iron that you can handle could not be used 
by your body. But there are foods which contain these substances 
in just the right form for the body to digest and use to help make 
you well and strong. And so it is with sugar. 

No doubt you believe that if your body needs sugar you must 
sprinkle it on your food at the table or have some put in your food 
when it is cooked. But this is not any more true than that it is 
necessary for you to put starch or iron in your food. There are 
foods that contain sugar also in just the right form for the body to 
use. Besides these, all the starchy foods that you eat are turned 
into a form of sugar by the body. Fruits, vegetables and milk are 
sotne of the foods that contain sugar, and bread, potatoes and 
macaroni are some of the many starchy foods that are turned to 
sugar when they are being digested. So you can see that you do not 
need the extra sugar, or as it is sometimes called, free sugar, that 
is bought at a store and added to food that already contains sugar. 
The only reason we have for eating free sugar is because it tastes 
good. If you were eating free starch, for instance, because it tasted 
good, and you found out that your body did not need it and that 
it w^as difficult to digest and might even do you harm, would you be 
willing to try not to eat it? 

There are people, like the Esquimos, who have never tasted 
sugar, and in other countries the people have tasted it but do not 
care much for it. For instance, the people of Italy average thirteen 
pounds of sugar apiece in a whole year. If you divide thirteen 
pounds of sugar in equal parts to use for three hundred and sixty-five 
days in a year, it will make about a teaspoonful a day. The Ameri- 
can people are so fond of sugar that it seemed a great hardship 
when each person was asked to use a little less than three pounds of 
sugar a month during the war. That was because the Americans 
usually ate an average of about ninety pounds of sugar apiece in one 
year, and the English and French people use nearly as much. 




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Do you not think it strange that there are some people who 
never use a tooth brush or try to clean the teeth in any way, and yet 
they have teeth that do not decay? You cannot think of any one 
you know who does not clean the teeth and still has no cavities or, 
perhaps, toothache. Msiny people brush their teeth at least some- 
times and have cavities just the same. Most of the Esquimos do not 
even know how a toothbrush looks, neither do they know what a 
decayed tooth is. They do not need to have people like dentists 
who can fill a cavity because they do not have any cavities in their 
teeth. 

The people of Italy have very hard teeth that seldom decay, 
and many of them do not even use a tooth brush. In fact, very few 
people have as many decayed teeth or suffer as much with toothache 
as the Americans, English and French. The Americans know more 
about caring for their teeth and try harder to keep them sound than 
any other people. This makes you realize that although it is most 
important to keep the mouth sweet and clean there is something 
else besides the tooth brush that helps to make and keep the teeth 
sound. This other important thing is the food that you eat. And 
now you have guessed that the food that effects the teeth injuriously 
seems to be sugar. 

The Esquimos eat no sugar and have no decayed teeth, the 
Italians eat very little sugar and have very few^ cavities in their 
teeth, and the Americans eat a large amount of sugar and have 
many cavities even though they know so much about caring for 
their teeth. And so we find that foods that are sweetened like cake, 
crackers, pastries, candy, etc., are harmful to the teeth. 

There are also some foods that are especially good for the 
teeth and no doubt the Italians eat more of them than we do. 
Some of the foods that contain lime and, therefore, make very 
strong teeth are milk, buttermilk, cheese, celery, spinach, tur- 
nips, radishes, string beans, kidney beans, cabbage, cauliflour, 
onions, carrots, etc. Food that requires hard chewing is very good 
for your teeth and jaws — like the Italian bread for instance, which 
is baked all day and is very hard and crusty. Only thorough chew- 
ing can break it up so that it can be swallowed. Such foods help to 
make the jaws large enough so that the teeth come in straight and 
the bones of the face develop as they should. 



When you eat a great deal of sugar and sweetened foods you 
want more and more of them all the time — that is, you develop a 
craving for sugar. This is not only harmful to your teeth but it 
takes away your appetite for wholesome foods and disturbs your 
digestion, and very frequently causes illness. If you have ever eaten 





Fig. 2. This Italian boy has a beautiful set 
of teeth with no cavities. He eats whole- 
some foods and practically no sugar. 



Fig. 3. This boy has been allowed to eat 
candies, cakes and sweets, with the result 
that his teeth are decayed to the gums. 
Mothers are unconsciously doing their 
children much harm by permitting them 
to have sugar in quantity. 



very much sweetened food like cakes and candies it will be hard for 
you at first to stop eating it, but if you had never tasted sugar you 
would not care for it or miss it. It would be very easy to bring up 
a small child without ever tasting sugar and such a child, if given 
wholesome foods to eat, would have a good digestion and a very 
hard sound set of teeth. 



SALIVA 
Did you ever realize how uncomfortable you would be if your 
mouth were dry? Those who have been sick with fevers or who 
have experienced being on a desert for a long time without water, 
know how uncomfortable and painful it is to have the tongue and 
mouth without moisture. 

There are three sets of glands which pour moisture into the 
mouth and keep the surfaces wet. This liquid which slowly oozes 
into the mouth is called saliva, and the glands are known as the 




Fig. 4. Showing the location of the salivary glands 
and the ducts opening into the mouth. Mumps are 
produced by the infection of the large glands in front 
of the ears. 



salivary glands. There are two large ones in front of the ears, one 
on each side, called the parotid glands, each having quite a long 
tube or duct w^hich opens on the inside of the cheek opposite the 
upper second molar teeth. The opening of these ducts can be seen 
in a mirror by stretching the mouth open. It is the parotid glands 
that have become infected when we have mumps. 

On the inside of the lower jaw there are two other glands w^hich 
are called sub-maxillary glands, and directly under the floor of the 
mouth and under the forward part of the tongue, two more — thesub- 



lingual. These four glands have ducts which open under the tongue 
back of the lower front teeth, and sometimes by pressing the point of 
the tongue against the roof of the mouth we can force a little jet of 
saliva out of the mouth from these ducts. There are also numerous 
little glands lining the inside of the lips and cheeks, known as mucous 
glands, bathing them in a slippery or lubricating fluid. By pulling 
down the lower lip and drying the inside surface of it with a clean 
cloth you will soon see little drops of moisture forming. This comes 
from the mucous glands. If we were obliged to chew and swallow 
our food with nothing but water to moisten it, it would not slide 
down our throats and into our stomachs very easily, so Nature has 
devised something to lubricate our food or make it slippery, so that 
it may be easily swallowed. This lubricant, which is found in some 
of the salivary glands and in the mucous glands, is know as mucin. 
It is mucin that makes the saliva stringy and glue-like. 

Besides making it easier for you to chew and swallow your 
food there is another very important thing that saliva does. If you 
will chew a piece of bread very slowly you will soon notice a change 
in the taste of it. While you are chewing and mixing saliva with the 
bread a certain part of the saliva is busy changing the starch of the 




Fig. 5. Showing the many bacteria in 
a small amount of the scrapings from an 
unclean tooth, under the microscope. A 
convincing reason why the surfaces of the 
teeth must be kept clean by rubbing and 
brushing. 



10 

bread into sugar. You will notice that the bread tastes sweeter as 
this change takes place. It is very important to mix saliva with all 
of your food because many of the foods you eat contain starch which 
has to be changed into sugar before the body can use it. 

In order to live and grow large families, all germs must have 
moisture, and because the mouth is moist and warm and dark, it 
makes a splendid place for millions of them to grow, especially if w^e 
leave food on our teeth after eating. In very unclean mouths, not 
only are there millions of germs which belong to the vegetable 
kingdom, but also very tiny animal life which can be seen only 
under a miscroscope, abounds in between and around the teeth. If 




Fig. 6. Sneezing or coughing on your books or 
desk throws germs from the mouth where others 
may get them on their hands. Cover a sneeze or 
a cough with your handkerchief. 



people who have unclean mouths could only see, under a miscro- 
scope, these tiny animalculae that are living in their mouths they 
would be anxious to buy a tooth brush and clean them out. 

When a person coughs or sneezes, he throws out a spray of 
saliva into the air which forms thousands of tiny bubbles, like soap 
bubbles, due to the mucin. In these little bubbles some of the germs 



11 

of the mouth are floating, and if you breathe these into your nose or 
mouth you will have some of the germs of the cougher or sneezer 
as new inhabitants of your own mouth and nose. This is one of 
the ways in which disease germs are spread and it is because of the 
carelessness and ignorance of so many people in not covering up 
their mouths when coughing or sneezing, that plagues like the in- 




Fig. 7. A highly magnified drawing of one 
of the tiny bubbles which float in the air 
after coughing or sneezing, and which fre- 
quently contain germs of the mouth on their 
surfaces. 



fluenza are spread over the country. Whenever possible the mouth 
should be covered with a handkerchief when you cough or sneeze 

but if you cannot do this it is always possible to raise your arm 
quickly to cover the mouth. It is not a good plan to use your hand 
to cover the mouth for then these germs get on your hand. Other 
people in handling the things that you have touched may then carry 
these same germs from their hands into their mouths. 

Many of the germs of the mouth are perfectly harmless, es- 
pecially in those mouths that are kept clean by the daily use of the 
tooth brush. In unclean mouths where the food packs be- 
tween and around the teeth and is allowed to stay there, disease 
germs find a splendid feeding ground and, becoming very numerous, 
are dangerous to the health of the person carrying them as well as 



12 

that of other people with whom they come in contact. People who 
spit on the sidewalk do not realize that this spittle contains many 
germs, and that it is tracked by the soles of the shoes into the house. 

Later, the hands or objects dropped on the floor may come 
in contact with it or, in sweeping, the germs from it may be in- 
haled w^ith particles of dust by some good housewife and may pos- 
sibly bring about severe sickness, if not death itself. 

It is very necessary that we should know the great importance 
of keeping our mouths clean, of covering the mouth when coughing 
or sneezing and of not spitting on the sidewalk. 

TARTAR 

Our teeth sind bones are made mostly from lime which the 
body gets from certain foods which we eat. Some of these foods 
may be found in the article on Sugar. While a child is growing the 




Fig. 8. Green stains and tartar beginning to 
destroy the gum margins. 



body is using most of the lime contained in food for new teeth and 
bones. Few children have lime deposits or so-called tartar on their 
teeth for this reason. 

When the teeth and bones are fully formed and a person is 
eating foods containing considerable lime, such as cereals, the blood 



13 



has more lime than the body can use. The salivary glands help to 
get rid of the surplus amount of lime by emptying it into the mouth 
in the saliva. When it reaches the mouth it forms on the teeth in 




1^1 



Fig. 9. These gums are being absorbed, and 
the sockets, which hold the teeth in place, being 
destroyed by the presence of tartar in a neglected 
mouth of an adult. 

the little hard particles that we call tartar or lime deposits. The 
largest deposits are found on the teeth nearest the openings of the 
salivary glands, that is the cheek side of the upper molars and the 




Fig. 1 0. The roots exposed, and the 
sockets destroyed by a fine tartar de- 
posit. 



inside of the lower front teeth. Tartar is usually found in some 
amount on all teeth. If it is allowed to stay on the teeth it will 
make the gums sore and inflamed. In a short time the gums will 



14 

draw away from the tartar, or recede, and even the bone which 
holds the tooth in place will draw aw^ay, or absorb. This is the be- 
ginning of a very serious disease of the teeth and gums, (called 
pyorrhea alveolaris) and it is frequently the cause of the second or 
permanent teeth getting loose and falling out. Tartar should be re- 
moved quite frequently by a dentist or dental hygienist — that is, 
every two or three months, so that the gums may be healthy and 
free from irritation. 




Fig. 1 1 . Photograph of a skull of an adult, show- 
ing the results of pyorrhea alveolaris due to ihe tartar 
deposits and the infection of the sockets of the teeth. 



029 453 094 



